Once upon a time...

there was a crib. This crib entered our lives when Ellie was born (10 years ago). When Kate started potty training (which is another post for another day!) I started counting down the days until I could finally get rid of the crib. We all know that Kate is the last, and why store a crib that I will no longer need, so it was going to take a nice little trip over to Sweet Pea (a store close by that takes used kid/baby stuff). Maybe I was a little too excited to be done with the crib, or maybe it had hurt feeling at being let go so easily and jinxed me, I really don't know. But the day I called to see if they had room for another crib they nicely let me know that they no longer take cribs. WHAT?!?
Once upon a time there was a crib re-call. Well great! I guess there was a recall on many many many cribs that have drop down sides. So Sweet Pea is no longer taking any crib just to play it safe. The crib I so desperately wanted to be done with is digging in it's heals and refusing to go.
What to do now... Well I guess I could try to sell it, but let's face it- who wants a 10 year old crib. It could go to DI and find a new home that way. Or it could get a make over!
And that's exactly what happened. I turned the old crib into a toddler bed for Kate. I searched and searched for a "before" picture but this is as close as I got...
Tyler in the upper left, Ellie in the lower right, and Kate in the big pictures. There's some rails and bars but no whole crib. And here is the after...Don't pay any attention to the white walls. Sure we've been in our house for 5 years, and you would think that we would have painted by now, but no- white walls it is. Bryan has color picking issues. I know it looks like the foot board is taller than the head board but it really isn't. I think it was just how I took the picture. They really are the same height. So, just in case you're wanting to cut apart your crib and make a bed, I'll tell you how I did it.

First: I sawed off all the legs. See how the foot (and the head) board rest right on the floor. I guess you could leave some of the leg if you want it a little taller. I also filled in most of the screw holes from before and painted it white.





Second: I took a trip to Home Depot and bought some wood. With this wood I made the supports for the mattress. They run between the head and foot boards. I actually used 2 pieces of wood, the one you see in the picture and another one that is screwed onto the bottom half of the back side (so it make a ledge- if that makes any sense).

And Third: I screwed the mattress support from the crib onto the wooded frame.



That's it- you have a little bed! (which, by the way, Sweet Pea will take!)